M3 Lee
The Medium Tank M3 was based on the Medium Tank M2, manufactured by the USA. Its nickname is "Lee", or "General Lee", named after General Robert Edward Lee, an American Civil War general. The early version was the same carriage, but the armor was increased from 32mm to 51 mm and a 75 mm M2 Gun was built in the right side of the fuselage. Two .303 M1919A4 Browning machineguns were placed in the left side of the fuselage and can not be moved. Like the M2, there was also a small turret on the fuselage but bigger and with a 37mm M5 gun and a .303 M1919A4 Browning machinegun. On that turret, there was a second smaller turret. This was a .303 M1919A4 Browning machinegun and could be used by the commander. Both turrets can rotate 360°. The British also had the tank in service but with a bigger turret, and the smaller turret on the big turret was removed, which become the M3 Grant, named after General Ulysses Simpson Grant. At least 5,348 Lee and Grant tanks were produced between April 1941 and August 1942 by the Rock Island Arsenal, the Detroit Tank Arsenal and the American Locomotive Co. in different variants. Later a new main battle tank was designed on the fuselage which became the M4 Sherman as successor of the M3 Lee and Grant tanks. The Canadians also built their own main battle tank which became the "Ram" tank. When the Sherman entered service in the armies, the M3 Lee and Grants were modified for other purposes. The first tank saw action during the Battle of Gazala in May 1942 by the British with the M3 Grant. Soon it would be clear the M3 was the most powerful allied tank on the battlefield at that time, but also a large and weak target. The large body of the tank was a good and excellent target for the Germans. The Germans may have had only 50mm tanks like the Pzkpfw III, but the ''eighty-eight'' did the killing jobs. Around 50% tanks which were used during the attack were destroyed! The M3 that was already in North Africa was gradually replaced by its successor, the M4 Sherman, but even that in a 1 on 1 confrontation was no match for the current German tanks. The latest deployment of the M3 in the west was in Italy; in Normandy they were no longer used. The Pacific War was an ocean war fought primarily by the naval fleets of the U.S. and the Empire of Japan. Tank warfare played a secondary role as the primary battles were between warships and between aircraft. Within the Pacific Theater of Operations, the U.S. Marine Corps deployed all six of its tank battalions; the U.S. Army deployed only a third of its 70 separate tank battalions, and none of its armored divisions, in the Pacific. During the battle for Tarawa island in 1943, the U.S. Army attacked nearby Makin Island, which was considered a less costly operation. The army was supported by a platoon of M3A5 Lee medium tanks from the U.S. Army's 193rd Tank Battalion, making this battle the only U.S. Army combat use of the M3 in the Pacific Theater. The U.S. Marine Corps did not use M3 Lees; their light tank battalions were equipped with M3 Stuarts until they were replaced by M4 Shermans in mid 1944. When the British received their new M4 Shermans from America, they quickly transferred approximately 1,700 M3s to the war in South East Asia, deploying about 800 M3s to Australian forces and about 900 M3 tanks to Indian forces. British Lees and Grants were used by the British Fourteenth Army from the fall of Rangoon,nperforming admirably until the end of the war. In the Far East, the M3's main task was infantry support. It played a pivotal role during the Battle of Imphal, during which the Imperial Japanese Army's 14th Tank Regiment (consisting of mostly captured British M3 Stuart light tanks and their own Type 95 Ha-Go light tanks) encountered M3 medium tanks for the first time and found itself outgunned and outmatched by the British armor. Despite their lower-than-average off-road performance, the M3s performed well as they traversed the steep hillsides around Imphal. Declared obsolete in April 1944, the General Lee and Grant fought on against Japan until the end of the war. In the end, the M3 in the China Burma India Theater performed the mission its original designers had intended it to do: that of supporting the infantry. The Russians also had Grants and bestowed it the nickname of "БМ-6 — братская могила на шестерых" that could be translated as "collective grave for six people". M3 Lee "late" The M3 Lee "late" was a later production model. It was the early model but with an 75mm M3 gun, which was a longer derivative of the M2. The M3 is equipped on American and British vehicles such as the M4 Sherman, the later models of the M3 Lee and Grants and the Churchill (scavenged from General Sherman tanks in the North African theatre). It had a barrel length of 37.5 calibres (3 metres) and a muzzle velocity of 619 m/s with M72 AP shell and 617 m/s with the M61 APC shell. BF1942 2015-04-10 21-10-06-54.png BF1942 2015-04-10 21-10-09-84.png BF1942 2015-04-10 21-10-20-82.png BF1942 2015-04-10 21-10-26-88.png Category:American Equipment Category:British Equipment Category:French Equipment Category:Soviet Equipment Category:Medium tanks